9th Circuit throws out Rio Tinto genocide suit

The 9th Circuit has tossed a lawsuit in which plaintiffs accused the world’s second-largest mining company, Rio Tinto Plc, of genocide.

In 2000, roughly 10,000 current and former residents of the South Pacific island Bougainville sued U.K.-based Rio Tinto for human rights violations and thousands of indigenous peoples’ deaths linked to a polluted mine it once ran. The plaintiffs brought their suit under the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreign parties to bring civil suits in the U.S. against other parties that have allegedly breached international law in their operations abroad.

On Friday, the 9th Circuit dismissed the case in light of the Supreme Court’s April 22 decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. In that case, the high court limited the scope of the Alien Tort Statute, saying the statute was intended to cover international law violations occurring in the U.S., and that violations outside the country must “touch and concern” U.S. territory.